Safe at Last

WHO COULD GUESS I'M IN HERE?! Sorry to burst your bubble, buddy, but within 5 minutes every cat in the house, is who! After they all get their turn in the latest box, it's time to shred it to pieces, even more fun. Buying everything by the case is obviously a necessity here.

... SIT TOGETHER IN PERFECT HARMONY

Ebony (Wootsie) and Ivory (Nergi) are deep in discussion about what's going on with the cows outside and how to just go out there into the cowport and get that milk straight from the source. Waiting for the milk to be served is such an unnecessary waste of time, you'd think that would be obvious to people. No, we did not arrange their tails like that. Cats just do that instinctively. These two cats are friends to everyone in the cat household. Nergi's vocation is opening closet doors for the others to enter and nicely mess up.

TRIBUTE of the DAY: Poodi

POODI was an intense cat ... pumped intensely, looked intensely, loved intensely ... and sometimes "lost it" intensely, signs of which one had to watch out for! What a sweetie. A fast-moving stomach virus was her ticket out of here a couple of years ago, but she's right in our hearts, as always.

UPPALI at PANAMPILLY Avenue

Here's a nice pix of a more than nice cat, the great UPPALI, whose eyes are the background of our blog masthead. He's the King of (the Cat) Carnival, respected by all, a door-handle opener with terrific presence, mentor to clueless kittens, curator of the cat collection in general. Santa Ysabel Mission Reservation east of San Diego was his birthplace; Cochin, India, is his home. Just likes "Indians."

MAUVI, HORIZONTAL

BOX TOO SMALL OR KITTEN TOO BIG? Mauvi was the first kitten to join our Animal Ashram after the plague of July, going first into quarantine in our office for a month. After showing signs of nothing but naughtiness, he was slated to go to the Big House, but was already a fixture as Office Cat, the first. Photo by Byron Aihara.

HERE COMES MAUVI!

IF HE LOOKS LIKE TROUBLE that's only half right. The rest is he's too smart; for example, Mauvi came by himself to the front gate. He was named by Greshma, the name not having any particular meaning but it fit. Mauvi is our first office cat, and is able rate all employees by their intelligence in eating fish or not for lunch. He's good on computers. His mentor, Byron, is shown here (finger) training him in the classic command "Stay!" This he is doing only because he wants to look at the camera. Makes funny growling noises, and moves like lightening to any door leading to trees. Photo by Byron Aihara.

THE BEST INDOOR HOME

HOW MUCH can a cat caretaker compensate their kitties for having to live indoors? Of course, the first compensation is a longer life full of love and cat food, free of crippling cat fights and car accidents. But, in addition, you can provide windowsill-high tables with pillows around the house so the outside world can be viewed in comfort. Monthly, put a cardboard box in a room. Occasionally, leave a closet open. Put an old boot on its side under the bed. Bring a piece of KFC home every once in awhile and take off the fried crust. And here's something fancy: Train it to walk on a leash! Yes, many do, after the initial antics of winding themselves up in it. Practice around the house first, then on the front walk. Don't give up with the first scared reaction. It's a pleasure, once learned, that lasts a lifetime. Figuring out lifestyle enhancers for your cats is very rewarding, and of course, the greatest enhancer is another pal cat. The behavior of little kittens is least threatening to an older cat as they don't take rebuffs personally at a young age, and in time the big one can accept the newcomer/s better. Another good companion for a grown single cat can be a wonderful older homeless doggie from a shelter who is cat friendly.

WHY INDOOR CATS?

Here are some facts that explain why keeping a cat indoors may not be natural, but how too many outdoor cats are hurting our bird population. (Being outdoors also shortens cats' lifespans to an average of four years due to cars, dogs, injuries, etc.)

DOMESTIC CATS who stay outside or are let out at night are an often overlooked negative influence on fauna in urban, suburban, and exurban landscapes, but they have a significant impact on native rodents and birds (Hawkins et al. 2004). Rodents are missed by few people, but do we want to lose more birds?

In one study in southeastern Michigan, 25% of landowners owned outdoor cats, which killed ≤1.4 birds/cat/week. Over 23 species were killed including species of conservation concern (Lepczyk et al. 2004). There were ≤3,100 cats across the landscape that killed ≤47,000 birds during the breeding season (~1 bird killed/km/day). Even taken conservatively, these data (Lepczyk et al. 2004) suggest that cat predation plays an important role in fluctuations of bird populations.

Devices have been developed that can reduce the efficiency of domestic cats as predators (i.e., collar-mounted pounce protectors like the Cat-Bib™). However, they need to be worn consistently by cats, and most cat owners are reluctant to impose this cat apparel on them (Calver et al. 2007).

Overabundant cats in urbanized landscapes are clearly an increasing problem. More effective spay/neuter programs have to be developed for their welfare. (DeStefano and DeGraaf 2003).

THEY WILL ALWAYS BE A PART OF US ...

WELL, THAT'S CUTE

THIS IS WHY ...PEOPLE PICK UP KITTENS ON THE ROAD. IS THERE ANY OTHER CHOICE?! BEING SUPER CUTE IS THEIR ONLY CHANCE FOR SURVIVAL IN A WORLD WITH LOTS OF OTHER PRIORITIES ... ALTHOUGH WHAT ELSE COULD THOSE BE, PRAY TELL?! (Note missing eye liner around the left eye of Soan (right), and to a lesser extent, her brother Papadi, too. They were so much in a hurry to get a home they forgot their makeup. But in a few months it magically appeared, anyway!)

CANE CHAIR CAT

Sometimes cats overdo it with the casual grace thing. Silver tabby UPPALI has once again found a perfect frame for his cuteness.

BIRD BRAIN/CAT BRAIN

A student of ornithology like Uppali can get a little tired of the academic life and sometimes just sleeps it off until he hears the rude click of a camera. What could be softer than a feather pillow?

HAIRY & SCARY!

#2 in Our YAWN Series

It's Fuboo! When you have almost everything you want you just YAWN sometimes. But there's a twinkle in the eye that says I've come a long way from the drainage ditch and intend to keep it that way. Fu is a people's cat; forget about identification with places. Except, of course, the kitchen.

Worshipping, Cat-Style

LET'S PUT THE FUN BACK IN FAITH! It is our belief that nothing we do is wrong and we are forgiven for everything! So here we are enjoying a fashion session with the goddess' gown, with emphasis on the tinsel trim. The less said about the missing arm(s), the better.

SOFT and SWEET, that's Soan (girl, left)

and her brother Papadi,

enjoying their kittenhood together.

LITTLE WHITE NERGI gets a lesson on love from Papadi kissing his sister Soan.

WIZARD WOOTZ

HERE'S OUR BOMBAY BLACK, variously known as Count Dracula, Wootzer, Wootsie, and Suckie Sucker, reflecting his extreme interest in sucking inside arm joints. But there's much more to Wootz than just that! He's extreme, and we like him that way!

CATS WITH STYLE

HERE'S A CLASSIC CASE OF CATS LIKING CAMERAS, starring Suboo-Toobu (orange-and-white girl, silver-and-white boy), the professional cat posers looking for a film contract with this one.

NEED BIGGER CHAIRS

UPPALI, our silver tabby, seems to have outgrown our chairs and is trying to say so in a nice way. Maybe we could put two together, face to face? Wouldn't want to suggest he move to one of the sofas. It isn't nice to ask a cat to move, and cat people are well aware that a cat will not like any place he's relocated to by his caretaker. Non-cat choices are all bad.

VIEW FROM THE "MOUNTAIN"

SOAN girl doesn't notice much difference between a shoulder, a bookshelf, or table. They're all basically "mountains" with a view. This eager-eater copied her brother Papadi in people-mountain climbing. But that claw "axe" equipment for holding on is a little tough on shoulder skin.